City Council may recommend analysis on smoking ban

The Berkeley City Council will consider recommending an analysis on an ordinance that would give landlords in Berkeley the power to ban smoking in their residences.

The recommendation, proposed by Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson and set to come up at the council’s meeting Tuesday, asks the city’s Community Health Commission and Rent Stabilization Board to analyze the possibility of crafting a smoke free housing ordinance similar to California Senate Bill 332, which went into effect Jan. 1and which gives landlords the right to make their rental properties smoke free.

According to Worthington, if enacted, the Berkeley ordinance would supplement SB 332 in a more Berkeley-specific manner, particularly in relation to older generations.

“People in Berkeley want to make sure that…. we be careful not to cause a lot of problems for elderly tenants who may have smoked all their lives,” Worthington said. “We want to implement it thoughtfully.”

Previous discussion for the smoke-free housing ordinance focused on either a complete ban on smoking for all new tenancies or a ban that would provide a small fraction of tenancies where smoking would be allowed, according to Rent Stabilization Board Executive Director Jay Kelekian.

Worthington said he hopes the momentum from SB 332’s passage will reignite the push for the city’s smoke-free ordinance.“The Rent Board and Commission have talked about (the ordinance) in previous years but it got stuck,” Worthington said. “I’m hoping to get it unstuck to renew the dialogue.”

The recommendation for the ordinance cites a report from the American Lung Association which assigned Berkeley a ‘D’ for its smoke-free housing options. The ALA assigned the city an overall grade of ‘B’ on its tobacco control policies according to the recommendation.

Councilmember Jesse Arreguin stressed the importance of reducing smoking but said the ordinance would need to be written in a way that would not result in unfair evictions.

“We can craft a law which does restrict smoking and does not create avenues for landlords to unfairly evict tenants,” Arreguin said.

In July 2009, the FDA released results of its analysis of certain electronic cigarettes, which is the
first known analysis of these new products. The analysis found that the
“e-cigarette” cartridges contain carcinogens, including nitrosamines,
and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol. The FDA commissioner of food and
drugs stated, “The FDA is concerned about the safety of these products and
how they are marketed to the public.” There is also concern that since
e-cigarettes “have not been submitted to the FDA for evaluation or
approval, at this time the agency has no way of knowing, except for the limited
testing it has performed, the levels of nicotine or the amounts or kinds of
other chemicals that the various brands of these products deliver to the
user,” nor is any information known about the risks of inhaling secondhand
vapor. To read more, see the FDA press release and their electronic
cigarettes information page.

Another big government overreach when it comes to use of legal tobacco products and they sure like to stick it to the poor. Maybe they should try electronic cigarettes to avoid tobacco and odor, so see http://www.ecigwerks.blogspot.com for more.